


A Bored Historian Briefly Recounts the History of Hallownest to Themself on the Tram

by zavegonzo



Series: Random Ficlets [19]
Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, Short One Shot, They're in a city but also they're bugs, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:07:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28205817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zavegonzo/pseuds/zavegonzo
Summary: So I've been worldbuilding for a future fic, and I decided to make this fic as a bite-sized introduction to that future fic's lore.
Series: Random Ficlets [19]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1340926
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	A Bored Historian Briefly Recounts the History of Hallownest to Themself on the Tram

Prehle the millipede curled up onto a tram seat and sighed. Although the Republic of Dirtmouth had made all sorts of advancements in technology, they were still using the same old tram systems from over a century ago.

The same old trams that took over an hour to go from one end of the mountain valley to the other. And unfortunately, today was one of those days that Prehle had to go from their home in Gatesmont all the way to Crownsmont, from the western end of the republic to the eastern.

 _‘At least the view’s nice’_ , Prehle mused while the tram departed from the station. The windows were made of clear glass. She could see the clouds in the bright blue sky, the buildings made of wood and stone, and the mountains in the distance.

She wasn’t afraid of getting bored. She had a tried-and-true method for keeping her mind stimulated during boring trips like this: recounting local history to herself.

The tram descended, and Prehle noticed a large doorway carved into a cliffside.

_‘Ah, King’s Pass. It was the only aboveground entrance one could take to the ancient kingdom of Hallownest, and to this day it’s still the only way to enter the Dirtmouth Mountain Valley. It was carved millennia ago in the Preclassical Period, by a civilization before Hallownest, most likely the Void Worshippers, though Hallownest did redecorate it with imagery befitting the Pale Dynasty._

_Y’know, I wonder why it was only a couple hundred years ago that we bothered to build a staircase under the doorway. Before then, it was just a cliff… How did bugs get down without breaking their tarsi?’_

King’s Pass slowly drifted out of view as the tram moved, so Prehle shifted her gaze north.

_‘There’s a lot of dome-shaped buildings over there. That’s how Domesborough got its name. Right after the end of the Infection, at the beginning of the Postclassical Period, immigrating bugs took shelter in the thousands of empty homes that had been abandoned.’_

Beyond Domesborough were some mountains. _‘Dirtmouth Republic is completely encased by mountains, but only Gatemont and Crownsmont are actually inhabited. The northern and southern mountains are protected nature reserves.’_

Then, instead of looking further out, she took a look at what was just a few feet away from the tram. _‘Looks like the tram’s just entered Benchborough. This borough was named for the small metal bench located in Town Square, where the famous bug Ghost is said to have enjoyed sitting. The people of Postclassical Hallownest weren’t very creative when it came to names…_

_Oh! We’re about to pass by that bench right now! …It’s disappointingly small, as ever, and it quickly vanishes out of sight as the tram continues._

_Well, at least this thing’s about to pass by something more interesting.’_

About a minute later, the tram was passing through the centermost borough of Dirtmouth.

_‘Good old Wellsborough. It’s named for a well that was one of the few ways to make it to the underground portion of Hallownest during the Postclassical Period. This place is filled with overly fancy buildings, with plenty of overly fancy rich folks to match. That huge statue of Ghost constructed right next to the well… It’s so gaudy, especially with that blinding white paint. Don’t these people know that only their mask was white?!_

_This place will hurt my eyes if I look for too long. Good thing we’re about to get to the suburbs.’_

Between Wellsborough and Crownsmont was a large, mostly depopulated suburban area. It was technically considered part of Wellsborough, but…

_‘The rich bugs in the center part of Wellsborough pretend the suburbs are part of a completely different borough, if not a completely different world. There’s a lot of class tension.’_

Prehle didn’t want to dwell on modern sociopolitical issues. So, she looked out of the window to the south. _‘I can see Newnest far to the southeast. During the Postclassical Period, the underground parts of Hallownest were condemned to prevent another outbreak of Infection. The spiders and bees were discriminated against by the other species of bugs, so they were forced to live in slums that became the borough of Newnest. Although species-based discrimination was outlawed during the early days of the Republic, the effects of centuries of discrimination persist to this day—’_

Drat. She ended up dwelling on modern sociopolitical issues again.

She spent a few minutes just looking at clouds.

A sudden darkness broke Prehle out of her funk. _‘Oh! The tram’s passing through Crownsmont now! This place is actually really interesting. It’s the largest borough by far in both area and volume, and records from Hallownest show that it was where the Infection began. The exact cause is still unknown, though there are various different hypotheses. My stance on it is that it was caused by a virus that evolved in the local wildlife and spread to sapient bugs.’ ~~~~_

Not too long later, the tram stopped at its destination in the middle of Crownsmont. She and the other riders disembarked.


End file.
